So says Dr. Juan-Carlos Verdeja, the founding president of the medical staff at West Kendall Baptist Hospital and an internationally recognized pioneer of advanced surgical techniques. West Kendall Baptist Hospital, which opened April 27, is the first completely new, non-replacement hospital built in Miami in more than 35 years.

For his patients who need their gallbladders removed, Verdeja eschews the standard multiple-incision laparoscopic technique and treats them instead using the SPIDER Surgical System. The SPIDER System allows Verdeja to operate through the patient’s belly button, leaving behind no visible scar.

“When you consider West Kendall Baptist Hospital’s state-of-the-art services and technology, it’s entirely appropriate to use the innovative SPIDER System to help minimize surgery’s invasiveness, including reducing scarring and post-surgical discomfort for patients and allowing them return to normal activity as quickly as possible,” said Verdeja, who also serves as director of minimally invasive surgery at the FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.

Verdeja used the SPIDER System to perform West Kendall Baptist Hospital’s inaugural surgical procedure on April 27, a cholecystectomy. Dr. Jaime Rodriguez, chief of surgery at West Kendall Baptist Hospital and chairman of FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine’s department of surgery, assisted Verdeja during that operation.

Here’s how the SPIDER System works: Verdeja makes a small incision inside the patient’s belly button, inserts the device into the abdomen and opens it like an umbrella. Expansion allows him to operate at the same angles he uses during traditional laparoscopic surgery; he also gains access to 360-degree flexible instruments. When he’s done, Verdeja closes the SPIDER system and removes it through the same incision.

The SPIDER System’s flexible instruments and ability to expand are proprietary technologies created by TransEnterix; they are not available in any other surgical system sold today. Surgeons worldwide are using the SPIDER System to treat obesity and colon cancer, and to remove kidneys and gallbladders.

In less than three years, TransEnterix has grown into a cutting-edge medical device company that has raised $60 million in venture capital funding and successfully commercialized operations in the United States and European Union. The company partners with medical thought-leaders to rapidly develop pioneering technologies that advance minimally invasive surgery.

Since he began using the SPIDER System last year, Verdeja has experienced such positive results that he has adopted it for use in all medically appropriate patients.

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